My son is still being tested for more possible issues and we will be done by the beg. of March but I know if anything he has speech issues and adhd.

He is having a very hard time with tests and spelling. The adhd makes things a little hard for him to stay focused and the speech issues make it hard for him to sound out or picture words in his head. Every week we get that new list the first thing we work on is making sure he pronounces words right so as not to confuse him. We've tried a lot. We tried looking at sheets of words and spelling out loud, individual flash cards per word for studying, writing the words individually or several times, writing sentences for the words, making rhymes or little songs to remember, closing our eyes and trying photo memory, nearly every way I could think of. I'm at my wits end for him. I just feel like there has to be something more I haven't tried or thought of yet to connect those dots for him. I have no idea which is making it harder for him to learn. He studies everyday all week and alot. He usually fails the tests or barely passes. It is hard to watch how sad and frustrated he gets over this. Any ideas for us?

Speech issues (I assume you mean articulation deficits addressed by an SLP) do not necessarily interfere with reading. If he can gear the difference between the sounds he knows what it should sound like even if he can't necessarily say it properly. It may be a phonological issue, meaning he doesn't discriminate between sounds he hears or associate the correct sounds with letters. The evaluation should tell you if this is an issue. If it is, you need to go back to basics of what letter = what sound.

Speech issues (I assume you mean articulation deficits addressed by an SLP) do not necessarily interfere with reading. If he can gear the difference between the sounds he knows what it should sound like even if he can't necessarily say it properly. It may be a phonological issue, meaning he doesn't discriminate between sounds he hears or associate the correct sounds with letters. The evaluation should tell you if this is an issue. If it is, you need to go back to basics of what letter = what sound.

I REALLY hope they figure something out for him this time! Before we moved they were dragging their heels in our old school dist and I was having to push and remind them to do this. Now that we moved they started it right away and the answers this poor kid has needed since the beg. of the school year will be here soon. I suspect there has to be something more going on. He tries SO hard. He is not messing around, this kid wants that "A". lol I suspect it may be a phonological issue then because he has a hard time keeping those straight. I'll try concentrating on the sounds then and see if that helps. Thank you!

Once you get some concrete diagnosis that will hopefully help. I have ADD and I am dyslexic and I got some modifications for testing. My ADD obviously causes issues with staying focused so I am slow but add in the fact that my dyslexia makes me an incredibly slow reader and tests were just very stressful. I am smart and grades were important to me but when you can't even finish the test you obviously can't get the best grade.

I am not sure how to help you with your sons issues since mine are different. I was always really good at spelling, and actually I read just fine I just read slowly compared to most. Once I was diagnosed I got help from a teacher for my dyslexia and it made a huge difference. I also got some extended time for tests. The only issue I had was later in high school biology we had video tests and there was no extended time given and I always got much lower scores on those. Hopefully you get some help for him

My son doesn't quite meet for ADHD but each year his teachers want to test for ADHD and Aspergers, so he's got some issues going on. I really don't stress about spelling too much, we work on math and reading more. But, we do go over his spelling words. He's in 2nd and gets 20 words a week. We pick the 5 easiest and work on those. He likes to write on a chalkboard mostly, or say them outloud. After we get those 5 down we add in the next 5. Sometimes there are 5 he knows right away so we get to start with 10 on Tuesday. It also helps my son to spell to a beat, so he will usually tap on his thigh, sometimes I will lightly clap for him. He does ok on the weekly tests but doesn't really retain them. Could you ask the teacher if he could have half of the words on his test?

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Suzi, working mama to my ODS(2004) , YDS(2006), DSD(2004) and married to the love of my life